


Possible Hope

by CaptainCapwidow



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death, F/M, Fix-It, Love, Romance, Spoilers, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-03-08 04:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18887599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCapwidow/pseuds/CaptainCapwidow
Summary: In a time of sadness and hopelessness, Steve Rogers clings on to the last bit of possible hope to save the one he loves the most





	1. Chapter 1

It was too painful to even think about life without her. The last words I ever heard come from her mouth were “See you in a minute” and since that moment, many minutes have gone by in which we have been apart. I miss her smile, her sarcastic quips and her presence. 

With one word she could light up a room or start a discussion. She was the glue that held everything together in this sickly world and without her, nothing felt right anymore. 

As soon as we all returned back from our time travel adventures in a quest to collect the infinity stones, I knew as soon as Clint looked into my eyes and I saw an empty space next to him, where she should have been standing, that she was gone. Gone for good. What made the whole situation worse was that I had to tell the one person who I could never do any wrong to, that his mother was never coming back. He’s only five years old and his brain has to comprehend that his mothers never gonna come back and hold him or kiss him goodnight ever again. 

She was the one women in this entire world that meant everything to me and she was gone too soon.

I stripped myself of the quantum suit and quickly left the room before I broke down in front of the team. I needed time to think, to mourn and grieve, but most importantly I needed to console myself before I looked into the dazzling blue eyes (so similar to my own) of my five year old son and tell him that she’s gone. I can’t, I just can’t live without her, I don’t even know how to cook, how am I going to be able to take care of the one thing I have left of her?

I walked into the office that Natasha and I shared, and the flood gates broke loose. I weeped, I yelled and I shook in anger over the loss of the women I loved. The sight of her ballet shoes hanging off the back of her chair threw me through another round of sobs as I realized that they were never to be worn again. The peanut butter and jam that sat next to the loaf of bread that she would continue to restock due to her pure love for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches would never be used again. 

I walked over to the chair in which Natasha would accompany on multiple occasions and picked up the grey sweater balled up on the seat. Upon picking it up I brought it closer to my face in hopes of savouring her scent in my memory. It had been less than an hour and I missed her so much. 

I put the sweater back down on the seat and sat against the wall and brought my knees up to my chest and began to cry again. I was so incredibly broken without her.

A few more minutes went by in which I sat against the wall in the office that we once shared and I cried. I cried until I heard a small voice say “Daddy” in which I looked up only to be face to face with my confused son. 

I was nowhere near ready to explain to him what happened, so I just opened up my arms and pulled him against my chest in an almost bone crushing hug. The sight of his red hair sent me through another wave of emotion as I held him and sobbed into his hair. He sat there, patiently, in my arms till I heard him ask “Where’s Mommy?” and in that moment I knew I had to get myself together and explain to my five year old son that Mommy was gone.

———————————————————————————————————————

James Clinton Rogers was born on April 27th, 2019. It was a rainy and cold day five years ago when he came into the world, but I wouldn’t change that day or that moment he was born for the world.

Natasha being pregnant in and of itself was so huge, considering she wasn’t able to bear children prior to James, and from the moment she figured out she was expecting him to the moment he was born, she took deep care and consideration for herself so she could have the opportunity to be a mother.

She always doubted her ability to nurture and love for a child like a mother was supposed to, but I knew from the moment she told me she was pregnant and the moments where I would catch her talking to her stomach, that she was going to be the best mother out there. 

As James started to develop and grow older, we noticed that he had inherited my serum as his development was a lot quicker than the average human. His increased strength and body size were clueing factors alongside of his monstrous appetite. Watching him grow up is just incredible. His fiery red hair is just like Natasha’s and his bright blue eyes mirror my own alongside of a bunch of other features, but his personality is ALL her. His quiet yet reserved attitude, and his sneaky mannerisms scream everything Natasha. He has a few similarly qualities to me, but I see pure Natasha in my son and I’m so glad for it (although she would argue otherwise). Motherhood suites her so well, and I’m torn that she won’t be there to continue that journey. 

Flashback to the present, I picked James up and walked out of the office and locked it up for the day. I couldn’t bare to be in there anymore, especially when everything screamed Natasha. I walked into the communal living area where everyone was sitting in solemn silence and got nothing but looks of sympathy and pain from everyone who was there. What killed was that I had yet to explain to James that it was just going to be him and I from now on.

 

Later that night after a quiet afternoon, with me mourning and James watching reruns of kids shows off my phone, I tucked James into bed, kissed him on the forehead and as I was getting up to leave I heard his soft voice say “Daddy, is Mommy gone?”. I knew in that moment I couldn’t ignore is questions anymore, so with tears in my eyes I turned around and kneeled next to his bed while combing my fingers through his hair and whispered shakily “I think so buddy”. 

The tears and sobs that shook my sons body were something I could’ve never prepared myself for. I picked him up and cradled him against my chest and cried with him. Cried for his mother, cried for my wife. This continued on for another ten or so minutes until a knock was heard at the door and I looked up to see Tony. 

He softly walked across the room until he was directly in front of James and sat down on the bed next to me, with a sad look in his eyes he put his hand on my right shoulder and whispered “I’m so sorry” before looking down at his feet and sniffling.

Albeit Tony and I’s past, the past five years we have worked on rebuilding our relationship with one another, and have became good friends again to the point where our children address us as “Aunts and Uncles”. We both lost people close to us when the snap happened and seeing us him and Pepper and Natasha and I were the only ones to branch out and start families, we became close and bonded over our new similar lifestyles and conquering parenthood together. His five year old daughter Morgan, who was a spitting image of him, is only a month older than James, so from the get go the two have been inseparable friends (cousins). 

It was gonna be hard raising James on my own from now on, but I knew that with Tony and Pepper close by that I was never going to be alone in raising him. I had the rest of my family here to support me when James and I needed it the most. 

———————————————————————————————————————

That night as I crawled into bed after all the chaotic and heartbreaking events that had ensued that day, I turned to Natasha’s side of the bed and placed my hand where her body would usually be laying and yearned for her to be there.

After awhile I turned myself so I was laying on my back and staring at the ceiling and began to think, think of all the possibilities of getting her back, but I knew that with too much hope, by dreams we’re going to be crushed. With tears in my eyes I turned to my side one more time and closed my eyes and entered into a sea of nightmare filled sleep.

———————————————————————————————————————

The next day I woke up to James cuddled into my side, trying to remember when he came into my room the previous night. I brushed my fingers through his fiery red hair and quietly got up out of bed and headed for the showers.

I felt absolutely awful. I felt weak and depressed and heavy. I was emotionally torn and ruined over the loss of Natasha and my heart sunk at the thought of her. I forced myself into the shower, got dressed and went to wake up James to get ready for the day.

After a quick breakfast I dropped James off with Pepper and walked down to the dock where the rest of the team sat in quiet, mourning the loss of the one who held us all together. We remained in a bitter silence until Clint spoke up. “It should’ve been me, she should’ve never sacrificed herself, it should’ve been me”, his statement was followed with another round of sobs and sniffling amongst the five of us. None of us expected an outcome of time travel as horrific as this. None of us knew what to say to lighten the mood. We were all miserable. 

It was quite awhile before anyone said anything, but when Thor spoke up, he was determined. “There must be a way we can bring her back, we have all six of the stones, we can do it”. Tony and Bruce shared a look with one another before Bruce spoke up “How are we supposed to get her back without getting rid of the soul stone?”. “We go back to the moment right before she sacrifices herself, and as she falls to the ground either myself or Thor catches her before hitting the ground” Tony explains. “But in order to get the stone we’d still be giving up her life, so how’s that gonna work?” Clint asks confused. 

We were all trying to think of ways to bring her back, but with every new idea there seemed to be a loophole. 

“Why don’t we get someone to snap their fingers with the stones we currently have, bring all the people who disappeared back and then return the soul stone?” Tony stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “That seems almost to good to be true, Tony” I commented quietly. “Well, we’ll never know unless we try right Cap? We gotta bring your girl back and we can’t do that unless we try”. 

Fast forward five hours later, we’re all suited up and standing together in the lab with Bruce about to attempt to snap is fingers to bring everyone back. With Pepper and the kids out of the compound, Tony puts the building into lockdown and secures the lab just in case anything goes wrong. I adjust my shield in front of myself and brace myself for an impact (we all do). I watch as the power of the iron gauntlet equipped with all six stones surges through Bruce’s body in a painful way. After a minute of attempting to bring his fingers close together he finally manages to snap his fingers. As soon as that happens he rips the gauntlet off of his hand and throws it across the room. His now charred skin is a painful black with hints of green still poking through. He takes a seat on the nearest chair and we all stand in silence. 

Tony takes the compound off lock down mode and we all slowly move to the windows to see if we could notice a change. At first all we saw were two birds flying past the compound until we heard Clint’s phone go off. Upon closer inspection we realized Laura, his wife who was dusted in the snap, was calling him. With a cry of relief from Clint he answered the phone and walked out of the room to talk to his wife. 

Moments later an orange (yellowish) circle opened in the room and out walked Peter Parker (the young boy from queens who called himself Spider-Man), Dr. Strange and three other people Rocket seemed to immediately recognize. Tony quickly stopped what he was doing and ran over to the young boy and enveloped him into a bone crushing hug, while tears streamed down his face. 

It was a sentimental moment to watch, but it stung, because Natasha wasn’t here to witness it. 

My pain was briefly subdued when Dr. Strange disappeared through his portal again and came back moments later with Wanda, Sam, T’Challa and Bucky. I ran to Bucky and hugged him so tightly, so glad to finally be reunited with him again after a long five years. The compound quickly began to fill up with those we had lost five years ago. There were tears shed, hugs exchanged and stories told. Nobody who was dusted knew quite exactly what happened to them self but within a matter of hours (and tons of showers) everyone seemed to be settled.

It was in and around seven pm and I walked back into the communal living room and took a seat on one of the couches, Pepper was on her way back from her and Tony’s lake house with the kids and everyone else was busy rekindling themselves with one another, so I took a seat and just stared out the window at the beautiful sunset. 

It was another couple minutes before I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I turned to see Tony and not far behind Bucky making their way to the couch where I was sitting. They both took a seat on either side of me and we all sat in silence for another few moments before Bucky decided to speak up, “It’s good to see you again punk”. With a small smile I gave him another hug before resting against the couch again. “So what interesting things have I missed in these past five years?” Bucky continued on, but, right as he finished that statement and Tony gave him a small chuckle, in through the door came James barreling towards me with Morgan close behind him eager to see her father. They were making such a ruckus that more people came into the room to see what was going on.

“Daddy” James screamed before crushing me in a hug   
“I haven’t seen you all day” he lagged on. With a small laugh from me I returned the hug and ran my fingers yet again through his red hair. 

I almost forgot that people alike Bucky, Sam or any of those who were dusted didn’t know about James. When I stood up to adjust James on my lap, I was met with a ton of very confused faces, before I heard Tony speak up “Have fun explaining this one Cap” he winked. 

I released the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding before introducing James to the rest of the team,

“This is James Clinton Rogers, mine (and I paused with a sharp intake of air before continuing on) and Natasha’s son, he’s five”. With that declaration, tons of questions followed like “You and Red?” or “Y’all really worked fast” or “He’s adorable” ensued. Something I wasn’t prepared to hear or answer though was the question that Bucky asked in confusion,  
“If Natasha’s the mother, then where is she?”.  
Those of us who experienced Natasha’s death less than 48 hours ago became immediately silent and glanced elsewhere not knowing how to properly respond to the question. We all remained in an awkward silence until Thor decided to speak up “Lady Natasha is unfortunately no longer with us, after her quest to retrieve the soul stone ended awry. Our hope though is to retrieve her once again when we return these stones to their proper timeline”. Another awkward silence ensued after Thor’s explanation and people began to quietly retrieve to their quarters until it was just the original six, Pepper and a sleeping James and Morgan in the room. 

“Don’t worry Cap, we’ll get her back, first thing tomorrow morning” Tony declared softly. With no other words being spoken and a quick hug from Pepper everyone retreated to their rooms for the night in preparation for tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning came fast and filled with anxiety. Anxiety at the hope of seeing her again, anxiety of this not working and almost anything else that could possibly go wrong.

I want to do right by my son. He deserves to grow up with his mother apart of his life and I desperately want his mother, the love of my life, to be back in my arms again. It’s hard to continue on in life without the one you love the most. Everything seems empty and out of place. 

I got out of bed, took a shower, checked on James (who was still sleeping because it was 5:45am) kissed him on the forehead and quietly headed down to the kitchen to attempt to eat something before travelling back in time. 

As soon as the idea was brought to my mind, I knew I had to be the one to go back into time to get her, I wanted to be the first person to see her if all of this worked.

After attempting to swallow down a granola bar I made my way into the lab where the quantum tunnel was already set up and ready to go for me. Tony and Bruce were already making notes and making sure everything was good to go and Bucky and Thor were chatting softly in the corner.

I made my way over to Clint who was sitting in silence on a bench with his head in his hands. Upon approaching him, he lifted his head up and wished me good luck before going over to Tony and Bruce and triple checking that everything was working properly. 

I walked into the change room and changed into the quantum suit before walking back into the lab. There, Tony provided me with the briefcase containing the soul stone, Pym particles and a shrunken version of another quantum suit for Natasha if everything goes as planned. 

After a quick briefing from Bruce, I stood on the platform which was ready to send me back to Vormir with hopes of returning with the women I love.

Bruce went back to his station and with a quick nod from Tony, hit a button and before I knew it, the pain of being compressed and flying through time soared through my body. Moments later, in the blink of an eye I was exactly where I needed to be.

_______________________________________________________________________

VORMIR 2014

Upon opening eyes, I was on a cold mountainous planet covered in snow. I looked ahead of myself and realized that I had a hike to get to where I needed to be, so with that I started to trek forwards.

What seemed to be about 10 minutes later (due to my serum and anxiousness to see her again) I finally made it to the top of the mountain. It was dark and gloomy and the wind was cold upon contact of my face. 

I looked around and walked to the edge of the cliff when I heard a familiar voice,

“Steven, son of Sarah, what brings you here?”

Upon turning around I made eye contact with someone in which I thought I’d never see again

“Schmidt, your supposed to be dead” I scowled 

“Well Steven, I technically am, my responsibility is to guard the stone, which appears to be in your hands as we speak” Schmidt spoke.

“Yeah it is, I’m here to return it to get someone back” I continued on.

“Well, Captain Rogers, I’m not entirely sure if your plan will work. This has never been done before, think carefully before you choose to proceed with your actions”.

“I’ve got nothing left to loose” I whispered.

Without further waiting I launched the stone into the abyss below and closed my eyes and hoped that she would return.

When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded in ankle deep water when I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

“Steve?” I heard, before quickly whipping my head around to face the face of the voice. Upon turning my head around my eyes immediately made contact with her emerald ones and I pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

“Yo...Y....You’re back” I sobbed into her shoulder, in complete shock of the plan actually working. 

“I’m back” she smiled, “and it’s all because of you. I love you” 

“I love you too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I’m so sorry it took so long to post the second chapter! I hope you enjoy! I plan to continue on if you guys enjoy it!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time ever writing a fanfic, I hope you guys enjoy! Comment below if you want me to write another chapter!


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